Saturday, December 15, 2007

cold like I've never experienced

Ok so the weather outside right now? InSANEly cold. Cold in a way I've never experienced.

How to describe. Well, it's misty outside, and from far away it looks like fog. But close up, and when the sun (which is trying to break through the mist) shines you can see that the fog is not FOG but teeny tiny little shiny glittery ice crystals floating in the air all over. (If you've see "The Golden Compass" it is EXACTLY like Dust.) In other words, it is so cold outside that the mist is freezing into ice and then floating about aimlessly. So if you go outside you will be breathing ice. It's gorgeous in a furiously cold and painful way. Anywhere the sun shines there is a glittering rainbow made of ice particles and sun on a milky misty background.

Our thermometer outside registers 12 degrees fahrenheit. The one inside is 64. It's too cold to get the house any warmer than that. I can feel the cold pouring slowly from the baseboards of the wall.

In other news: Last night I had a Norwegian microbrew beer that cost 125 kroner for one half liter bottle.
Nøgne ø, Jul øl, (see bottle above.) At current exchange rates, that half liter of beer cost $22.50. Was it good? Yes, very. A very dark beer, a porter style, with a complex finish and a strong yet even mix of malt and hops. 8% alcohol content! It finished with notes of coffee and vanilla. I think it could have done with a year or so of sitting and aging, to take the edge off, there was a slight harshness at the very end. The one I had was at the very early end of its freshness date, which ended in 2012. But when that smooths out that will be one HELLUVA beer. At that price, it better be. Luckily it was for a work party and so I didn't pay it. Can you imagine 4 beers that cost a hundred bucks? Still, after so many years of really crap beer it was incredibly heartening to find a Norwegian beer that harks back to what I think the beer was like when beer was a common household staple, made with pride by every housewife.

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